10-17-16

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BE IT REMEMBERED that a special meeting of the White County Council was held at the White County Building in Monticello at 9:00 A.M. on October 17, 2016 for the purpose of discussing the additional appropriations and other business that might come before the membership.

Council President Butch Kramer called the Council meeting to order in joint session with the Commissioners. The following members were absent: None

The following members were present:

Dennis E Carter Kevin L Crabb Art A Anderson

Bruce D Clear Raymond L Kramer Jr James G Annis

James B Davis

HIGHLIGHTS OF JOINT SESSION:

White County Emergency 911 Director Terri Brooks said the maintenance fee problem for their current recorder has been resolved.

Director Brooks said each dispatcher has had their multiple monitors, computers, keyboards, and mice scaled down to multiple monitors and computers, that are connected to only one keyboard and one mouse per dispatcher. Their Office is thrilled.

Council on Aging Director Gale Spry said they had their four year policy review with just a couple minor things need to change.

Director Spry said their Department has a zero tolerance drug policy. Two drivers over the years have tested positive for marijuana.

White County Environmental Investigator James Reynolds said the Liberty Landfill tonnage was down 17,000 from last month.

White County Area Plan Director Joe Rogers said they are searching software options for their Office.

White County Highway Department Superintendent Mike Kyburz said they are using the Community Crossings Grant for roadways to work on 1250 S. The next project will be Quarry Road. Whenever asphalt comes in, they will begin Rangeline Road.

White County Economic Development President Randy Mitchell said he spoke with Scott Cooper, who replaced John Collins as General Manager at Indiana Beach, and learned they have already sold more 2017 season passes to date than they sold for the 2016 season.

President Mitchell said a new business, Public House Pub & Grill, began in Wolcott, replacing the Brass Buckle.

White County Commissioner President John Heimlich said Tim Mc Fadden was recommended to fill the opening for the White County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Deputy Director. He has 26 years of law enforcement experience and EMA Director Roberta Yerk said he was the most qualified applicant who would require the least training.

Commissioner Burton made a motion to accept the recommendation to hire Mr. Tim Mc

Commissioner President Heimlich said County Health Insurance costs were down about 3% this year. He said the Commissioners voted at their October 3, 2016 meeting to keep the 2017 medical benefits premium the same as it was in 2016. Human Resource Deputy Leah Hull said the vision package went up about .20 to .40 cents for an individual and $1.00 for a family. She said the Dental rate held the same as before. Life insurance is also the same.

Monticello-Union Township Public Library Director Monica Casanova said the Auditor will need to publish a notice in the local papers about the Library expansion proposal to include Liberty and Lincoln Townships in favor of the expansion. The Library will have sixty days from the date of publication to collect signatures of 20% of registered voters from those Townships. They will collect signatures at the voting centers. Once they receive enough signatures, they will bring them back to the Commissioners for a resolution. When asked, Director Casanova said the Liberty Township Trustee is not interested in being included, and she has not had a response from the Lincoln Township Trustee. The Library Board wants to collect $0.08 for every $100.00 of assessed value on property taxes beginning in 2018. They currently collect .0612/$100 from Union and Jackson Townships and the city of Monticello. She said, if this is implemented the Library would no longer collect late fees and fines which equals about $6,000 per year. Director Casanova said there are about 130 Liberty Township people with Library Cards. She said the Monon Town and Township Public Library supports this effort.

Indiana State Senator Brandt Hershman was invited to speak about the wheel tax. He said highway and infrastructure funding is a nation-wide issue. The Indiana General Assembly (GA) is looking for additional sources of revenue beyond taxes. The GA decided last session that they have been withholding too much from Local Option Income Tax (LOIT) revenue from Indiana’s counties, leading to reserves being too high. This led the GA to implement a one-time distribution of LOIT reserves in excess of 15% of annual collections. Further, the GA changed the state law to require that reserves be set at 15% instead of the former 50%.

Senator Hershman said there is talk about charging a fee for miles driven, which he opposes.

He said the State will not penalize and hold back from giving funds from counties who do not implement a wheel tax. However, the State does want to see that counties are using the resources they have available to them before the State will consider sending supplemental funds.

When asked about the purpose of having the Council review all of the non-binding budgets, Senator Hershman said there was concern that authorities in the County might not be aware of the financing and budgets throughout their County and felt it was important they see them.

For more detailed content of joint session, see Commissioners’ minutes.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Council President Kramer opened the special Council meeting with the Council reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

MINUTES

Council President Kramer said he would like to have last month’s minutes amended on page 4 to better reflect the reason for cutting the school recycling grant program. He clarified that tipping fees went down severely which caused the available funds to go down accordingly. Therefore cuts had to be made. Councilor Crabb said Carroll County is spelled with two lls at the bottom of page 3.

Councilor Crabb made a motion to accept the September 19, 2016 minutes as amended. Councilor Davis seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS

There were no additional appropriation requests.

TRANSFERS

The following transfers were received:

AMOUNT FROM TO

White County Highway Department

$1,000.00 4-401-2-11 4-401-3-22

Office Supplies Travel Expense

$1,700.00 4-402-2-43 4-402-3-92

Road Striping Contractual Services

Auditor Rogers said every claims run contains transfers for the Highway Department. She this is due to trying to use their own funds before using the money that was set aside in the Solid Waste fund for them (as the Council has instructed in the past). Councilor Annis said this process should help them in making adjustments in their future budgets.

Council President Kramer said Judge Mrzlack asked about having the new court e-file system start date of November 15, 2016 held off until the County is better prepared. He was told if the County did not start immediately, the software company was going to push us back two years. President Kramer said the Sheriff’s Office will probably need at least another employee because of the administrative load created. Currently, the plaintiff files and makes payments at the Clerk’s Office. That will change, and all the service and process fees will be made at the Sheriff’s Department. Chief Deputy AJ Alletto said the Sheriff’s Department does not have the staff necessary to take on the extra duties. He suggested borrowing someone from the Clerk’s Office to do the work short-term and to cross train those already in the Sheriff’s Office to see how everything will work. That would give them a better idea as to how many employees and what it would take to keep up.

Judge Mrzlack said it was through the process of acquiring the e-filing system that the State statute was discovered stating the Sheriff shall collect the fees. He said in about half of the counties the fees are collected by the Clerk’s Office and half by the Sheriff’s Office. The statute has been around for years, so he does not think the change has to be at the same time as the e-filing start date. Judge Mrzlack said although there may be many who can do entries and take in money, there is only one person in the Clerk’s Office who does the actual bookkeeping. He said a full-time person (probably a bookkeeper) will need to be hired for the Sheriff’s Department. Councilor Carter said there will be a lot of time explaining the process to people.

The Judge said with e-filing the plaintiff will have the responsibility of filing the papers to be served directly with the Sheriff’s Department rather than at the Clerk’s Office. The Plaintiff continues to have the right to send the paperwork to the Defendant through certified mail or use of a third party. Judge Mrzlack said fees may change as well.

President Kramer said a new job description needs to be drawn up, with input from the Judge and Clerk. Auditor Rogers said it takes a minimum of two months to do a new job description. Auditor Rogers said although an elected official has statutory requirements; it does not mean the elected official cannot delegate the requirements to another office. Perhaps there could be an agreement between the two offices. At any rate, the e-filing can move forward on November 15th, and some time can be taken to come up with a plan between the Sheriff’s Office and the Clerk’s Office.

WHITE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT NEW EMPLOYEE

EMA Director Roberta Yerk would like the new EMA Deputy Director Tim McFadden to start at the previous Deputy’s salary of $29,777, then add the additional 1 ½ % annual increase for 2017. He has 26 years of experience. Mr. McFadden will start at level 3. Auditor Rogers said she had told Director Yerk to come back in six months to get him bumped up further if he is doing the job.

Councilor Anderson made a motion to hire Tim McFadden at $29,777 and the 1 ½ % raise in 2017. Councilor Annis seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous

BOARD MEETING REPORTS

Council President Kramer said WCED President Mitchell told him as leads come to him for the spec building in the Mid-America Commerce Park, companies want to know specifically what incentives our County has to offer, including dollar amounts. And they want it in a few day timeframe. President Mitchell does not have that kind of information at hand. He wants to hire Umbaugh & Associates to provide rapid response figures based on the information they already have on our County. Mr. Mitchell said Umbaugh and Associates would charge $10,000 and he has the money in his budget. He said it may affect the Council down the road, should they be asked to approve the incentives. Councilor Anderson said Mr. Mitchell should work on getting that amount down since it is probably flexible. Auditor Rogers said they cannot make promises to prospective buyers, just estimates, because there is a Tax Abatement Board that makes abatement and TIF decisions before they are presented to the Council. Councilor Clear said it is a shame Counties have to give incentives.

Councilor Crabb said Dan Zuerner is being paid by the County for two days a week, so Mr. Mitchell tends to include him at WCED meetings. Councilor Anderson is concerned about Mr. Zuerner being involved with all of White County’s dealings because it is a conflict of interest. He is being utilized as both a consultant and a contractor.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

Councilor Jim Davis has a job description from the School Superintendents for the shared Career Counselor position. They will also work with Ivy Tech. He said the four County High Schools currently share with each other on other programs, so this should work well. Council has already designated money for the position.

WHITE COUNTY 2017 SALARY ORDINANCE

Council President Kramer and Auditor Rogers said the 2017 Salary Ordinance and Matrix includes the changes made for Michael Downey’s salary, the Clerk’s Office incentives, Laura Cosgray’s pay, Prosecutor Robert Guy’s possible incentive for his Office. Auditor Rogers said that Mr. Downey approached Information Technology (IT) Director Eric Storm about an offer he received from Purdue, and then took it to the Commissioners. The Commissioners then spoke to Director Storm and came up with an amount they could afford. Mr. Downey was satisfied with the offer. Councilor Carter was concerned about the other IT person. Auditor Rogers said their jobs are not the same. She said Mr. Downey works with the servers and Mr. Jeff Sure works with computer software. President Kramer said Commissioner Diener said the County would not be able to replace Mr. Downey with the current pay as IT people make a lot more money in the “real world.”

President Kramer said with the passing of the 2017 Budget and this Salary Ordinance the County General Fund tax levy did not go up. It holds steady at .2601. The County overall tax rate remains unchanged for 2017 at .3670. Councilor Davis thanked Auditor Rogers for all her work on the Salary Matrix and keeping the Council up-to-date with all the information.

Council President Kramer said he was at the recent exit interview with the State Auditors who have been auditing the County. There were a couple of minor corrections to be made in both the Treasurer’s Office and the Auditor’s Office for 2014.

In regard to the $90,000 discrepancy from 2012, they said they are not an advisement board, and will therefore not put anything in writing. They said the paper trail is there for future Auditors. They said the County needs to make the adjustment, and that it come from any fund.

Councilor Crabb made a motion to adjust the Solid Waste Operating Fund $90,103.61 to clear up the 2012 data entry discrepancy found by the State Board of Accounts (although they found it was a simple data entry error, would not provide a written document stating such). Councilor Clear seconded the motion. Vote: 4 Yeas, 3 Nay Councilors Anderson, Carter & Davis

because the State Board of Accounts will not put it in writing.

WHITE COUNTY NON-BINDING BUDGETS

Councilor Crabb made a motion to complete the review of the non-binding budgets on-line through Gateway before the end of October. Councilor Annis seconded the motion.

Vote: Unanimous

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to bring before the Council, Councilor Crabb made a motion to adjourn. Councilor Anderson seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous

BE IT REMEMBERED that a special meeting of the White County Council was held at the White County Building in Monticello at 9:00 A.M. on October 17, 2016 for the purpose of discussing the additional appropriations and other business that might come before the membership.

Council President Butch Kramer called the Council meeting to order in joint session with the Commissioners. The following members were absent: None

The following members were present:

Dennis E Carter Kevin L Crabb Art A Anderson

Bruce D Clear Raymond L Kramer Jr James G Annis

James B Davis

HIGHLIGHTS OF JOINT SESSION:

White County Emergency 911 Director Terri Brooks said the maintenance fee problem for their current recorder has been resolved.

Director Brooks said each dispatcher has had their multiple monitors, computers, keyboards, and mice scaled down to multiple monitors and computers, that are connected to only one keyboard and one mouse per dispatcher. Their Office is thrilled.

Council on Aging Director Gale Spry said they had their four year policy review with just a couple minor things need to change.

Director Spry said their Department has a zero tolerance drug policy. Two drivers over the years have tested positive for marijuana.

White County Environmental Investigator James Reynolds said the Liberty Landfill tonnage was down 17,000 from last month.

White County Area Plan Director Joe Rogers said they are searching software options for their Office.

White County Highway Department Superintendent Mike Kyburz said they are using the Community Crossings Grant for roadways to work on 1250 S. The next project will be Quarry Road. Whenever asphalt comes in, they will begin Rangeline Road.

White County Economic Development President Randy Mitchell said he spoke with Scott Cooper, who replaced John Collins as General Manager at Indiana Beach, and learned they have already sold more 2017 season passes to date than they sold for the 2016 season.

President Mitchell said a new business, Public House Pub & Grill, began in Wolcott, replacing the Brass Buckle.

White County Commissioner President John Heimlich said Tim Mc Fadden was recommended to fill the opening for the White County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Deputy Director. He has 26 years of law enforcement experience and EMA Director Roberta Yerk said he was the most qualified applicant who would require the least training.

Commissioner Burton made a motion to accept the recommendation to hire Mr. Tim Mc

Commissioner President Heimlich said County Health Insurance costs were down about 3% this year. He said the Commissioners voted at their October 3, 2016 meeting to keep the 2017 medical benefits premium the same as it was in 2016. Human Resource Deputy Leah Hull said the vision package went up about .20 to .40 cents for an individual and $1.00 for a family. She said the Dental rate held the same as before. Life insurance is also the same.

Monticello-Union Township Public Library Director Monica Casanova said the Auditor will need to publish a notice in the local papers about the Library expansion proposal to include Liberty and Lincoln Townships in favor of the expansion. The Library will have sixty days from the date of publication to collect signatures of 20% of registered voters from those Townships. They will collect signatures at the voting centers. Once they receive enough signatures, they will bring them back to the Commissioners for a resolution. When asked, Director Casanova said the Liberty Township Trustee is not interested in being included, and she has not had a response from the Lincoln Township Trustee. The Library Board wants to collect $0.08 for every $100.00 of assessed value on property taxes beginning in 2018. They currently collect .0612/$100 from Union and Jackson Townships and the city of Monticello. She said, if this is implemented the Library would no longer collect late fees and fines which equals about $6,000 per year. Director Casanova said there are about 130 Liberty Township people with Library Cards. She said the Monon Town and Township Public Library supports this effort.

Indiana State Senator Brandt Hershman was invited to speak about the wheel tax. He said highway and infrastructure funding is a nation-wide issue. The Indiana General Assembly (GA) is looking for additional sources of revenue beyond taxes. The GA decided last session that they have been withholding too much from Local Option Income Tax (LOIT) revenue from Indiana’s counties, leading to reserves being too high. This led the GA to implement a one-time distribution of LOIT reserves in excess of 15% of annual collections. Further, the GA changed the state law to require that reserves be set at 15% instead of the former 50%.

Senator Hershman said there is talk about charging a fee for miles driven, which he opposes.

He said the State will not penalize and hold back from giving funds from counties who do not implement a wheel tax. However, the State does want to see that counties are using the resources they have available to them before the State will consider sending supplemental funds.

When asked about the purpose of having the Council review all of the non-binding budgets, Senator Hershman said there was concern that authorities in the County might not be aware of the financing and budgets throughout their County and felt it was important they see them.

For more detailed content of joint session, see Commissioners’ minutes.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Council President Kramer opened the special Council meeting with the Council reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

MINUTES

Council President Kramer said he would like to have last month’s minutes amended on page 4 to better reflect the reason for cutting the school recycling grant program. He clarified that tipping fees went down severely which caused the available funds to go down accordingly. Therefore cuts had to be made. Councilor Crabb said Carroll County is spelled with two lls at the bottom of page 3.

Councilor Crabb made a motion to accept the September 19, 2016 minutes as amended. Councilor Davis seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous

ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS

There were no additional appropriation requests.

TRANSFERS

The following transfers were received:

AMOUNT FROM TO

White County Highway Department

$1,000.00 4-401-2-11 4-401-3-22

Office Supplies Travel Expense

$1,700.00 4-402-2-43 4-402-3-92

Road Striping Contractual Services

Auditor Rogers said every claims run contains transfers for the Highway Department. She this is due to trying to use their own funds before using the money that was set aside in the Solid Waste fund for them (as the Council has instructed in the past). Councilor Annis said this process should help them in making adjustments in their future budgets.

Council President Kramer said Judge Mrzlack asked about having the new court e-file system start date of November 15, 2016 held off until the County is better prepared. He was told if the County did not start immediately, the software company was going to push us back two years. President Kramer said the Sheriff’s Office will probably need at least another employee because of the administrative load created. Currently, the plaintiff files and makes payments at the Clerk’s Office. That will change, and all the service and process fees will be made at the Sheriff’s Department. Chief Deputy AJ Alletto said the Sheriff’s Department does not have the staff necessary to take on the extra duties. He suggested borrowing someone from the Clerk’s Office to do the work short-term and to cross train those already in the Sheriff’s Office to see how everything will work. That would give them a better idea as to how many employees and what it would take to keep up.

Judge Mrzlack said it was through the process of acquiring the e-filing system that the State statute was discovered stating the Sheriff shall collect the fees. He said in about half of the counties the fees are collected by the Clerk’s Office and half by the Sheriff’s Office. The statute has been around for years, so he does not think the change has to be at the same time as the e-filing start date. Judge Mrzlack said although there may be many who can do entries and take in money, there is only one person in the Clerk’s Office who does the actual bookkeeping. He said a full-time person (probably a bookkeeper) will need to be hired for the Sheriff’s Department. Councilor Carter said there will be a lot of time explaining the process to people.

The Judge said with e-filing the plaintiff will have the responsibility of filing the papers to be served directly with the Sheriff’s Department rather than at the Clerk’s Office. The Plaintiff continues to have the right to send the paperwork to the Defendant through certified mail or use of a third party. Judge Mrzlack said fees may change as well.

President Kramer said a new job description needs to be drawn up, with input from the Judge and Clerk. Auditor Rogers said it takes a minimum of two months to do a new job description. Auditor Rogers said although an elected official has statutory requirements; it does not mean the elected official cannot delegate the requirements to another office. Perhaps there could be an agreement between the two offices. At any rate, the e-filing can move forward on November 15th, and some time can be taken to come up with a plan between the Sheriff’s Office and the Clerk’s Office.

WHITE COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT NEW EMPLOYEE

EMA Director Roberta Yerk would like the new EMA Deputy Director Tim McFadden to start at the previous Deputy’s salary of $29,777, then add the additional 1 ½ % annual increase for 2017. He has 26 years of experience. Mr. McFadden will start at level 3. Auditor Rogers said she had told Director Yerk to come back in six months to get him bumped up further if he is doing the job.

Councilor Anderson made a motion to hire Tim McFadden at $29,777 and the 1 ½ % raise in 2017. Councilor Annis seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous

BOARD MEETING REPORTS

Council President Kramer said WCED President Mitchell told him as leads come to him for the spec building in the Mid-America Commerce Park, companies want to know specifically what incentives our County has to offer, including dollar amounts. And they want it in a few day timeframe. President Mitchell does not have that kind of information at hand. He wants to hire Umbaugh & Associates to provide rapid response figures based on the information they already have on our County. Mr. Mitchell said Umbaugh and Associates would charge $10,000 and he has the money in his budget. He said it may affect the Council down the road, should they be asked to approve the incentives. Councilor Anderson said Mr. Mitchell should work on getting that amount down since it is probably flexible. Auditor Rogers said they cannot make promises to prospective buyers, just estimates, because there is a Tax Abatement Board that makes abatement and TIF decisions before they are presented to the Council. Councilor Clear said it is a shame Counties have to give incentives.

Councilor Crabb said Dan Zuerner is being paid by the County for two days a week, so Mr. Mitchell tends to include him at WCED meetings. Councilor Anderson is concerned about Mr. Zuerner being involved with all of White County’s dealings because it is a conflict of interest. He is being utilized as both a consultant and a contractor.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

Councilor Jim Davis has a job description from the School Superintendents for the shared Career Counselor position. They will also work with Ivy Tech. He said the four County High Schools currently share with each other on other programs, so this should work well. Council has already designated money for the position.

WHITE COUNTY 2017 SALARY ORDINANCE

Council President Kramer and Auditor Rogers said the 2017 Salary Ordinance and Matrix includes the changes made for Michael Downey’s salary, the Clerk’s Office incentives, Laura Cosgray’s pay, Prosecutor Robert Guy’s possible incentive for his Office. Auditor Rogers said that Mr. Downey approached Information Technology (IT) Director Eric Storm about an offer he received from Purdue, and then took it to the Commissioners. The Commissioners then spoke to Director Storm and came up with an amount they could afford. Mr. Downey was satisfied with the offer. Councilor Carter was concerned about the other IT person. Auditor Rogers said their jobs are not the same. She said Mr. Downey works with the servers and Mr. Jeff Sure works with computer software. President Kramer said Commissioner Diener said the County would not be able to replace Mr. Downey with the current pay as IT people make a lot more money in the “real world.”

President Kramer said with the passing of the 2017 Budget and this Salary Ordinance the County General Fund tax levy did not go up. It holds steady at .2601. The County overall tax rate remains unchanged for 2017 at .3670. Councilor Davis thanked Auditor Rogers for all her work on the Salary Matrix and keeping the Council up-to-date with all the information.

Council President Kramer said he was at the recent exit interview with the State Auditors who have been auditing the County. There were a couple of minor corrections to be made in both the Treasurer’s Office and the Auditor’s Office for 2014.

In regard to the $90,000 discrepancy from 2012, they said they are not an advisement board, and will therefore not put anything in writing. They said the paper trail is there for future Auditors. They said the County needs to make the adjustment, and that it come from any fund.

Councilor Crabb made a motion to adjust the Solid Waste Operating Fund $90,103.61 to clear up the 2012 data entry discrepancy found by the State Board of Accounts (although they found it was a simple data entry error, would not provide a written document stating such). Councilor Clear seconded the motion. Vote: 4 Yeas, 3 Nay Councilors Anderson, Carter & Davis

because the State Board of Accounts will not put it in writing.

WHITE COUNTY NON-BINDING BUDGETS

Councilor Crabb made a motion to complete the review of the non-binding budgets on-line through Gateway before the end of October. Councilor Annis seconded the motion.

Vote: Unanimous

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to bring before the Council, Councilor Crabb made a motion to adjourn. Councilor Anderson seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous